A Morning in the Life of a Performance Artist

I hate performance art. However, since we’ve started our section on performance art I have become a little less critical and more accepting toward this form of art- it makes me laugh and even think a little. Today I took part in two acts. The first was a silent card-building task, created by Ashley Sullivan. My objective was to build a 3-story card house-much easier said then done- without speaking, for a whole 2 minutes-also easier said then done. I failed in the act of building anything more then 3 cards loosely leaning on each other but I accomplished the silent part. The second act I took part in was about a morning routine. Person one went about their normal morning routine while person two, myself in this act, acted as the utensils needed to complete the morning routine- i.e. shower, toothbrush, comb-sound effects included.
My own performance, which starred Tyson and Kayla, was a verbal progression into physical movement. Both started out by verbally playing the word association game ‘Dog, Bark, Tree.’ After a few rounds of verbally playing they were required to stop using words and only movements to convey what their ‘word’ association might be. Their movements led us to death, walking in place, rising from the dead, and brain-eating zombies (Tim Anderson makes a quick guest appearance as the man getting eaten).
We rely on the use of words everyday to get what we want and need. My piece explored what would happen if those words were taken away, how well we could communicate and understand each other. This scenario isn’t as far fetched as one might think, ‘when will we ever lose the use of words?” you may scoff, but just go to another country where you are not familiar with the language. See how far your words get you then.
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Gutai Performance Art

The Guati Art Association was formed in 1954. The founding member, the one who financed it, was a Japanese man by the name of Yoshihara Jiro. Others in the group included:, Shimamoto Shozo, Kanayma Akira, Murakami Saburo, and Shiraga Kazuo. Translated into English Guati means 'embodiment' or 'concrete'. The group of young artists surfaced after World War II and their “activities of the Gutai group in the mid-1950s constitute one of the most important moments of post-war Japanese culture'. They blazed the path for later forms of performance art such as happenings, performance and conceptual art. Challenge to the Mud performed by Shiraga Kazue is the most known and celebrated act of the Guati group. Performed in 1955 it consisted of the artist rolling around half naked in a pile of mud. The group did other mediums of art, revolutionizing them also as they went. Murakami created a series of paintings in which he soaked a ball in ink and then threw it at the paper. Throws Of Color was made by Shimamoto, in which he threw glass jars filled with color pigments on his canvas. This type of new art was obviously directly effected by World War II and the after effects.
"Gutai art does not alter matter; it gives matter life... In Gutai art, the human spirit and matter, opposed as they are, shake hands... My respect goes out to the works of Pollock and Mathieu. Their works are the cries uttered by matter: by oil paint and enamel themselves." (Yoshihara, Gutai manifesto, 1956)

Sources Used:
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=130
http://www.ashiya-web.or.jp/museum/10us/103education/nyumon_us/manifest_us.htm
www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2003/10/20/31466.html

Shadows in the Parking Lot-Exchanging Movements

I'm just going to throw it out there-I am not a fan of Performance Art. I've seen it and knew someone who did it seriously as part of there career and I'm still really not a fan. The Kaprow activity, to me, was nothing more then just amusing. It brought me back to third grade when the popular game on the playground was Shadow Tag. The activity was a lot more physical then I expected it to be. I spent most of my time trying to step on Pavalos's shadow or trick him from stepping on mine. Because of that there was no meaning or emotion behind what I was doing...it had no purpose. After the first 3 minutes the game..er.. 'performance' I found it became very boring and repetitive. I find that some of the best art is made when the artist is moved by something specific and then attempts to convey what moved them or the feeling from it . This activity lacked that direction, I had nothing to try and convey through my shadow therefore giving my performance no meaning or substance. Ultimately I just felt silly. If I had to describe this activity (and performance art for the most part) in one word it would be: superfluous.